Neuroinformed Stress Management Education.
The purpose of this training
The background to these training modules is based in personal and professional experience working with challenging adolescents in a variety of medical and social settings. Early work with brain injured patients led me to an enlightened discovery of our resilient and equilibrium seeking brains. In becoming a social scientist this discovery has been strengthened working professionally with adolescents who are burdened by the impact on brain architecture and function, of exposure to prolonged stress or trauma. This was reinforced in my personal life supporting family to liberate children with neurodiverse conditions. I hope you take advantage of the knowledge provided here. Know that by being informed of the integral role of our brains to facilitate optimal mental and physical health, we will be providing our young people with the greatest opportunity to be healthy, powerful and caring human beings.
Module 1
Stress and the Brain
This module provides an understanding of the integral role of the Arousal system that comprises the Sympathetic Nervous System and the Parasympathetic nervous system as part of the Autonomic Nervous System. The module includes information on various neuroscience perspectives regarding healthy brain architecture and function and identifies features that distinguish us from other mammals.
Module 3
Understanding Adolescent Reward Systems
This module looks at the neural features of the Reward circuitry in the adolescent brain. The increase in activity in these regions of the brain peak in mid adolescence and decline in adulthood as the use of higher cortical regions of the brain take prominence in decision making and problem solving. Despite the risk taking that underpins the reward seeking in adolescents it has advantages for the creative and aware teacher. That is, the explosion of activity in this region is part of the move toward neural integration which includes learning, motivation and behavioural regulation. You will learn in this module how as a teacher you can take best advantage of this period in an adolescents development including motivating students whose behaviour may be more risky than others.
Module 5
Crisis Intervention
Throughout your teaching career you will encounter adolescent students who have been exposed to prolonged stress or trauma. The brain function of these students are often in fight, flight or shutdown mode and it is difficult for them to adjust their reactiveness without the continued support of self-aware and caring adults. For some of these students, preventative or de-escalatory strategies may not have worked for a number of different reasons. They may reach crisis point in the classroom and you will need to manage these crises to prevent further harm to the student, yourself and other students. This module is about crisis intervention when prevention and de-escalation has not worked. It is designed to take the fear out of these encounters as much as it is about effective management. There are many forms of crisis, and this can feel overwhelmingly complicated to manage. This does not have to be overwhelming if you follow simple steps that you have already planned for. The module encourages you to have a plan, to develop that plan with your students and to apply this under conditions of crisis. This will of course include your school policy on crisis management.
Module 7
You and Your Brain
You have now completed six modules, and this last module is about helping you to pass on this neuroinformed information to your students. This module provides a means of achieving this and focuses on teachers and students taking a collaborative approach to learning about their brain function in terms of behaviour and learning. The module encapsulates some creative ways of passing on this vital information to students. The module aims to increase adolescents knowledge about the dynamic developmental brain changes taking place and how they can best take advantage of this transitional period, to develop into creative thinkers and to develop positive relationships for optimal health and well-being.
Module 2
Adolescent Brain Development
This module looks at the development of the adolescent brain focusing on understanding what regions of the brain are related to adolescent emotions and behaviour and the significant regions relating to learning. Specific attention is paid to the emotional lower brain and the Social Brain in adolescence. A link is provided to explain these regions in more detail and to describe adolescent brain development as a move to neural integration and balanced interconnection of regions in the brain.
There is a brief introduction to the arousal system and management of more challenging behaviours will be provided in more detail in Module 5.
Module 4
Neuroinformed Strategies in the Classroom
When we talk about neuroinformed strategies in the classroom environments we mean that strategies can be used in a preventative or des-escalatory way that act on shifting neural activity in the brains of your students and yourself, toward a consistent state of equilibrium. This module is covering some of the more successful strategies known to achieve calmness in the classroom, in addition to improving learning in your adolescent students. There are some fundamental steps you can take to provide a safe and creative environment for yourselves and your students. These steps will facilitate development of your self-efficacy as a teacher, your self-awareness and your skills of observation. In addition, working in this creative space and utilising strategies such as cogenerative dialogues (COGENS), you will provide your students with autonomy promoting their self-awareness, self-regulation and thinking at a higher cognitive level to promote learning.
Module 6
The Neuroscience of Technology and Adolescent Brain Function
We all know that in the 21st century, adolescents are well entrenched in the use of technology. It forms part of their worldview and increasingly underpins educational approaches to teaching and learning. This module looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the digital world for adolescents and their teachers. There is an escalating need for research into the impact on the adolescent brains of the explosive influence of the digital world. Already we know of various addiction disorders that affect impulsivity in adolescents. This can be particularly difficult to manage in a school setting and may impact negatively on students with mental health or neurodiverse diagnoses. That said, technology has some wonderfully creative ways of making learning an exciting and adventurous means to support adolescent brain development. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one example of this. Another example is the use of Virtual Reality to facilitate social and emotional learning in students. The digital world is an ever expanding one and offers teachers opportunities to make their classrooms into dynamic but calm learning spaces.
About the Author.
I commenced a career as a general registered nurse and subsequently went on to become a Social Scientist. My interest in neuroscience was triggered through nursing and rehabilitation with brain injured patients and later through a social science career making connections between some of these behaviours and those of children and adults presenting with mental health diagnoses and various forms of addiction. This included diagnoses of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity in the days prior to the identification of spectrum disorders.
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I have experienced my greatest learning and joy through my children, and my grandchildren diagnosed with ASD and ADHD. In addition, through continued work with children and young people with a range of mental health, neurodiverse and behavioural conditions.
These life and career circumstances have led to continued research and work in higher education as a lecturer in social sciences, exploring the connections between brain and behaviour. In particular, I have focused on the emergence of enlightened information regarding neurodiversity and the continuing neuroscience that connects adverse childhood experiences, early attachment relationships and environmental crises with structural and functional brain changes. In today’s neuroscientific and education communities these connections are positively transforming the way we manage behaviour and learning. In children who need our absolute commitment and perseverance to providing them with optimal life outcomes.
View more of my research below:
